Congress Has Until April 20 to Take Action on 702. Tell Them Not to Drop The Ball

In 2025, a federal district court held that backdoor searches of databases full of Americans’ private communications collected under Section 702 ordinarily require a warrant. The landmark ruling comes in a criminal case, United States v. Hasbajrami, after more than a decade of litigation, and over four years since the Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that backdoor searches constitute “separate Fourth Amendment events” and directed the district court to determine a warrant was required. And yet, Congress has not acted with the urgency it needs to protect our civil liberties. Worse, it seems poised to renew the surveillance authority with no reforms. The intelligence community and its defenders in Congress, as always, seem more interested in defending their rights to read your private communications than in protecting your right to privacy. We cannot afford any clean extension of a warrantless surveillance system. Contact your Members of Congress and tell them: No reauthorization of Section 702 without substantial reform.